Announcements

ILLEGAL CONTENT I'd like to just reaffirm MoDaCo's position regarding piracy and illegal content in the light of some recent questions / postings. Posts will be censored by myself or my moderation team if the contain or link to: Illegal / pirated / cracked software or sites that host such softwareNintendo emulators / ROMs or sites hosting them (in light of Nintendo's legal stance)CUSTOM ROMS You may discuss and post links to custom device ROMs on MoDaCo, provided the following rules are adhered to: ROMs must not contain any illegal 3rd party software (this includes trial versions included without permission)ROMs must give full credit to the original authorISSUES If you have any issues with this policy, please contact PaulOBrien directly via PM.

Please note that selling items on the forum directly is not allowed by the forum rules. There is a forum for eBay auctions whereby you can list the items on eBay and link to them there. This is the ONLY forum for this type of activity. You may also advertise links to the eBay forum in your signature. Please note that selling directly in contravention of these rules will result in a warning / suspension / ban.

87 posts in this topic

After the success of last months MoDaCo WinMo Week sponsored device, we're moving onto a new handset, again courtesy of eXpansys, the Asus M530w!

This month we've moved from Windows Mobile Professional to the Standard platform, and the M530w is set out in the popular landscape screen/QWERTY keypad arrangement. While the features aren't groundbreaking this device is priced at a pretty bargainous £199.95![/teaser]

Specs are as follows:

QWERTY hardware keypad

2.4" qVGA screen

256/64MB ROM/RAM

microSD expansion

Tri-band GSM/2100MHz UMTS (no HSDPA!)

Bluetooth/Wifi

117 x 65 x 13.8 mm

135g

2MPix camera with flash

My first impressions were a bit underwhelmed, it's not the smallest or prettiest device available at the moment, but I can't help but love the screen/keypad format, coupled with a great keypad and surprisingly capable camera I think this could be another winner for those on a budget!

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

The idea here is to bring a slightly off-the-wall device to people's attention, yes it's not necessarily the newest device but the decent spec means it still holds it's own against newer handsets, especially at it's pricepoint.

64MB RAM is a pain sometimes, but even more recent devices are still shipping with the same, plus as above, the keypad and large ROM capacity make it nice device to use day to day.

0

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Having recently purchased one of these from Expansys (my first 'smartphone') I was interested in hearing your comments on the 'show', and noticed that one model you mentioned as having a similar specification, and one which I almost bought instead, was the Motorola Q9H. That is, until I realised that it lacks wi-fi, which I consider to be an essential feature for this type of phone.

I will also be interested to read your user feedback over the next week or so, and how you feel it performs in 'real life' as it were. Two useful free programs I have found already are Microsoft's Live Search Mobile... a 'must have' in my opinion, and also perhaps their new MSN Direct.

It is also my intention to pair my Asus M530H up with a bluetooth receiver, and some route navigation software, just to see how it performs as an emergency sat-nav substitute. The cheapest product I have found so far is Route 66 Mobile 7 for Windows Mobile Smartphones, the GB (& IRL) version of which can be picked up for about £30... and I rather fancy the Emtac Mini-S3 receiver also!

Taking the price into consideration, I reckon that this offering from Asus is a 'good buy' for anyone looking for a Windows Mobile smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard... and as an added bonus, it even comes with its own protective case! :D

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

what is all this about. the device is old. why are you reviewing it/inviting questions on it, months after release?

It's not beyond the realms of possiblity that eXpansys, as one of their sponsors, have asked Modoco to promote it, like they did with the Atom Life. The introductory text even suggests this is the case.

0

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

We'll talk about why we chose the device (or why I chose the device with eXpansys) more in the next podcast so stay tuned but basically, I wanted to do a Smartphone with QWERTY following on from Pocket PC last time round. My first considerations were the HTC S630 Cavalier or Treo 500, but in the end we went for the cheapest (and least discussed previously?) option, the M530W. Of course we discuss everything with eXpansys - they are our sponsors after all - and we're also looking to support them with what they want to promote! :D

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Just watched your interesting 'Unboxing' video.... is there any way of saving it, by the way?

I did notice however that there did not appear to be any entries in the 'Auto Configuration' box (on the Internet page).

Possibly you didn't actually try to view them, but mine has the option of Vodafone, Vodafone Prepaid, Orange, Orange Prepaid, O2, O2 Prepaid and T-Mobile, which covers most of the UK service providers... with the notable omission of '3', on whose network I was unable to obtain a data connection anyway.

As most companies don't seem to have even heard of the Asus M530W, this is another welcome inclusion, and some of them add some other useful short cuts also.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Hi All, first post here. Ordered a M530w yesterday, hope it will perform well! Still amazed to see so little people picking it up. I guess only a couple of hundred are sold in Europe? I looked on the Asus site tonight for software updates, and this is only thing I could find: m530w firmware Version V4.0.10 for Singapore user only.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Got mine yesterday as well. It is also running v4.1.10_EU1, and it contained Dutch and Belgium profiles for GPRS as well, unlike what some other users experienced here. It even worked for my provider. My phone however seems to have a hardware flaw, it cannot see the status of the battery. It seems to charge, somewhat, but the status never changes. Also when I look for the battery info in CeleTask, it says that all voltages are 0v, so I suspect the phone cannot actually read out the battery status, which also causes other problems. Did anyone see this before? I think I will send it back to get a replacement, because it doesn't work like this.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Done that, started reinstalling software again, and the battery level seems to be at the same level again. It actually reads in the manual that you should charge it fully before first use, so I'll leave it to charge while shutdown for two hours, and see what battery status it will report. I am using the official charger that came with the phone to do this. If that doesn't fix it, I'll guess RMA would be the best option!

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Sounds like it's broken, I never charge devices when they first arrive (too impatient) and it makes no difference :(

P

I was too impatient, and now it actually shows two bars in the battery level measurement to my surprise. However, CeleTask still does not display the power levels properly. Would there be another WM6 app that can display power levels properly, like in voltages, what CeleTask does? Or did any of you guys check the power levels with the default CeleTask 2.2 (from the official website), and tried checking the battery status?